Turkey Donating $200 Million More to Libyan Rebels

Turkey's foreign minister, Ahmet Davutoglu, met with Libya's rebel leaders Sunday to recognize the rebel leaders as the legitimate representatives of Libyan people and pledge an additional $200 million worth of support to the previous $100 million they donated in June, according to The Washington Post. Turkey joins France, Italy, Qatar and several other countries who have also thrown their support behind the rebels.

The meeting took place in a secure government building in Benghazi, the rebels' capitol in Eastern Libya. Mustafa Abdul-Jalil, chairman of the rebels’ National Transitional Council, and Ali al-Essawi, the rebels' foreign minister, represented Libya at the meeting. Jalil said that Muammar Gadhafi could step down and retire in Libya if he agreed to international supervision of his movements in a Sunday interview with Reuters. The offer was extended to Gadhafi about a month ago through the United Nations but Gadhafi never called back.

A joint press conference was held after the meetings where it was announced that rebel leaders would go on a two day trip to Turkey to discuss the terms of the financial aid in more detail. The money donated is going to go towards rebuilding Benghazi's infrastructure and repairing the Benghazi airport. The CEO of Turkish Airlines said they would resume flights to Benghazi as soon as the security situation calms down.

This article is from the archive of our partner The Wire.

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Connor Simpson is a former staff writer for The Wire. His work has appeared in Business Insider and City Lab.